Posted on 02/05/2006 11:46:47 AM PST by lancer
WASHINGTON: Tempered reaction among US Muslims to the row over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) can be partly attributed to their integration into American society, community leaders say.
Fear of reprisals and the fact that the offending cartoons have not been reprinted in any major US newspapers may also have contributed to the lack of street protests and violence, they add. “There is better integration here of communities into the general society than in Europe where integration has not been very effective,” Kareem Shora, of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), said.
“This (controversy) echoes the historical problems that Europeans had with anti-Semitism,” he added. “Now Islamophobia seems to be an acceptable form of public discourse in Europe.”
Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News in the state of Michigan, which has the largest concentration of Arabs outside the Middle East, said he believes the country’s 6-7mn Muslims had not taken to the streets to express outrage in part because of fear of retaliation by authorities.
“People are scared,” he said. “We have a government saying it is spying on us and it’s scaring the living daylights out of people.
“But they still feel the same about this issue and are very angry.” Siblani blasted the cartoons as proof of Western insensitivity to Islam and double standards in dealing with the Muslim world. “The other day the president of Iran made a statement about the Holocaust and the whole world condemned him,” he said. “Here you have a statement offending 1.3bn people around the world. Why don’t we see condemnation?”
“There is one set of rules for the West and another set for everyone else,” he added. “Where do we draw the line on your freedom of speech and hurting my feelings and principles and irritating the hell out of me?”
Several community leaders warned that the crisis could easily escalate if the West fails to fully grasp the reasons behind the uproar over the cartoons, which have been printed in several European newspapers and which Muslims regard as blasphemous.
Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet (pbuh). “Instead of encouraging constructive integration, this (cartoon controversy) does nothing but add to the divide and perception that there is an us-versus-them mentality,” Shora said.
He said ADC planned to meet next week with members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCRIF), a government body that promotes religious tolerance, to discuss the uproar.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said he hoped the controversy would not escalate any further and that reason would win over violence.
“We hope and pray that cool heads will prevail in the next few days and weeks as this controversy comes to our shores,” he said. “That extremism and bigotry will not be allowed to shape the debate between America and the Muslim world.”
The United States backed Muslims on Friday against European newspapers that printed the blasphemous cartoons in a move that could help America’s battered image in the Islamic world.
Inserting itself into a dispute that has become a lightning rod for anti-European sentiment across the Muslim world, the United States sided with Muslims outraged that the publications put press freedom over respect for religion.
“These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims,” State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question.
“We all fully recognise and respect freedom of the press and expression, but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable.”
The United States stopped short of urging US media not to republish the cartoons.
American Muslims welcomed the position despite some misgivings that unpopular US policies such as the Iraq war and perceived pro-Israeli stances in the Palestinian conflict meant there was little America could do to repair its image.
Yep, and now we have people on this very website encouraging newspapers to print the cartoons. The only reason I can think of they'd want that is to egg Muslims on, hoping that they'll riot so the cowboys will have an excuse to bash some heads.
Rioting over cartoons is silly, but so is going out of one's way to piss someone else off!!
If ever a cult were self destructive, it is this cult. The Jim Jones' and others may drink the proverbial kool-ade, taking usually their own members into oblivion, the muslim cultists prefer to take as many innocents as possible.
Once they push the world to respond, there will be no muslim "religion" left to follow.
Denmark is free, which means the newspaper does not need permission to publish as it pleases. The Muslims expect the newspaper to be punished by the government, and if that happens, it means Denmark no longer is free. The Muslims will be emboldened to press farther in their goal of domination.
When Madonna desecrates Catholicism, she boasts of her "courage." It takes lots of courage to offend people who will criticize you, I suppose. I notice that no one in Hollywood has the courage to portray the story of Mohammed in a movie--and it'd make one epic blockbuster of sex and violence.
That we can't say what's on our minds without fearing the violence (rather than protest, negotiations, criticisms) of Islam--that says a lot about Muslims and about us.
I think you are right.
Dang.
Sure there are.
The same ones that condemned 9/11.
.....que audio of cricket sounds.........
LVM
I did. To hell with him.
Rioting over cartoons is silly, but so is going out of one's way to piss someone else off!!
"The latter may be unproductive and rude, but the former is utterly insane."
Never has so much been said with so few words.BTTT
Get the hell out if you dont like it here...
There is no line on freedom of speech. If they are offended by something they can sue for libel or slander. If it doesn't fall into those two categories you live with it, or protest peacefully, you don't burn, loot and kill because you are "offended". The bottom line is this. It is only against sharia law, and that law applies only to muslims. If I am not a muslim I am free to desecrate, draw and caricature the idiotic prophet of the mudering and pedophile condoning farce of a religion or any other religion, period. It happens all the time to Jews and Christians and a few others I can think of. I haven't seen them looting and burning embassies and I haven't see any of them cut someone's head off lately either.
Didn't think so.
I condemn senseless violence no matter who the victim.
Will that work for you, or do you need me to be specific?
APf
"Once they push the world to respond, there will be no muslim "religion" left to follow."
I hope that's true, but history tells me that it is very unwise to wait too long to oppose Moslem rule....during that time, "the world" becomes Moslem... I hope I'm not being too pessimistic, but if non-Moslems do not find a unifying principle instead of fighting amongst themselves, they may discover they have waited too long.
Liers!...Cartoons not being printed has nothing to do with it.
Fear of reprisals has everything to do with it IMO....and not reprisals from the "authorities" either. The lunatic imams that have been here for some time know that the Americans have escaped being disarmed, and after 9-11, a lot of Americans will not tolerate a bunch of mohammidian lunatics rioting, threatening murder and destroying property.
So, the "flock" is ordered to stay home, and let the European mslums do the heavy lifting.
The imams would love to order riots, but are cowards...just like the coward writers at NBC who are afraid to use islam in the same manner as they use Christianity.
All these bastards are cowards..cowards...COWARDS....C-O-W-A-R-D-S.
"“This (controversy) echoes the historical problems that Europeans had with anti-Semitism,” he added. “Now Islamophobia seems to be an acceptable form of public discourse in Europe.”"
Seems to me that the muslims are giving people reason to be wary if they are rioting and recalling ambassadors over a cartoon they don't like.
The cartoonist didn't do this out of a whim. He and others were tired of the muslim attempts in Denmark to stifle the press. Did he go overboard? Check out the palestinian papers and see what they do to Jews and Christians and then get back to me. Or go to Detroit and see how workable and civil you feel.
Understanding goes both ways and I don't see any coming from the muslims.
That's a start...
We condem it every day by our laws and rules that do not allow us to go into any establishment, gay or straight, and kill or injure people. That is how we condem it. We will gladly watch this guy die for killing people, gay or straight, and root for the death penalty. You are an idiot if you think the majority of straight males, and females, in this country condone such actions.
As for it being silly for us to want the muslim community to condem murderous actions you are full of sh** on that point also.
They not only do not condem, in most cases they make excuses for the people committing these murderous acts, this article is a prime example of that.
The only reason they haven't rioted here is because we haven't printed the cartoons? That is what the man said. This is not a good statement.
It means they would do it if we had the nerve to print these cartoons. The silly people in this case are the murderous, head chopping, child raping cult of islam.
Have a nice day.
The difference being that this is being done in the name of their religion, and it's not just a handful of people.
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